Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-09-03

sixteenth century; it excited the strongest
admiration of the bold royers of the seas
in the seventeenth and eighteenth CEN
turtles; it extorted the most eXtravagant
praises from the pathfinders and explorers
in the middle of this century, and it made
the argonauts" willing exiies from their
childhood homes at the commencement of
the American occupation. Flanking these
valleys are two high mountain chains.
On the west is the Cost Range, which
overlocks the Pacific shores for 800 miles.
On the east are the Sierra Nevadas, whose
pinnacled peaks fern the eastern part of
the State
This physical confirmation gives every
Typographical feature known to earth.
There are wide, fertile valleys for him
who prefers the lower levels sloping hill
sides for the dwellers at the mountains
feet, and deep valleys, canyons, gorges and
lefty elevations for those who love the
lights and shadows of great mountains.
BEAUTY OF SCENERY.
No other part Of the earth presents a
wider and more varied panorama Of beauty
and grandeur than this garden of the Pa
cifc slope To the west the great sea rolls
her crested waves against beetling crags
and giant cliffs, or over wide stretches of
pebbly beaches and shores of glistening
sands. The gently rounded domes of the
Coast Range, and the hilly submits of the
| Sierras overlook picturesque valley and
forest parked plains. Shasta and Lassen,
| the grim sentinels of the north, lift their
heads into eternal silence, just missing the
! crowns of eternal SHOWS.
The great rivers flow through the grain
| ladened valleys, looking like ribbons of
silver set in cloth of gold. Innumerable
streams, from their sources in the great
mountains, dash through narrow gorges,
pour in cleaning cataracts down precipi-
tous mountain sides and whirl in silent
| eddies at the feet of over-branching forest
| monarchs. Great woods darken the noun
tain sides and green oaks beautify the
| valleys.
WONDERFULLY FERTILE SOIL.
The soil of this section is of remarkable
| fertility In the valleys of the Sacramento
| il was formed at the bottom of an immense
| lake, which received the washings and
| weatherings from the lofty ranges that
surrounded it. For untold ages the pot
ash, the magnesIa and lime from the
weatherings of ,the magnetism lime strata,
| and the soda from the decomposed vegeta-
tion was carried, year after year. and de-
| posted in the bottom of this inland sea,
where it was stored up in inexhaustible
quantities for the uses of the tillers of the
land in later times This accounts for the
Incompatible fertility of the valley.
Judged by the analysis of the chemist and
the experience of the farmer, there is no
richer soil on the earth than the alluvium
in this drained he'd of what was once the
great Sacramento lake. Along the foot
hills are the clay loan, composed of sand,
clay, lime, soda, potash, phosphorus, mag
| nesia and iron. This clay loan has every
element of fertility, and is known to be al
most inexhaustible, bearing annual crop
pings for a great number of years without
| requiring fertilization. The evidence of
the inexhaustible fertility of the soil of
Northern California is furnished in the
unexampled annual wheat crop, amount
ing to 35,000,000 bushels, with yield of
| more than 30 per cent. greater than the
average of the rest of the United States,
and in the enormous yield of fruit and
| every other agricultural product.